Cults

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Cults TodayThe word cult is often thrown around in today’s society as a derogatory term towards religions that are not well known or have aspects that are contrary to mainstream religions. According to mainstream media, cults have been responsible for massive pact suicides, and their followers are incestual and polygamous. The mass media shows the leader as a manipulative person who controls his/her believers as they blindly follow, not knowing the trouble that will certainly find them. “… ‘cult’ has become little more than a convenient, if largely inaccurate and always pejorative, shorthand for a religious group that must be presented as odd or dangerous for the purpose of an emerging news story.”(3) Douglas Cowan and David Bromley show the harsh reality of the way the majority of the media likes to portray cults, probably for better ratings. There are several main cults that are often referenced when researching the topic. The first being The People’s Temple, the founder Jim Jones had a following of 912, that all died (including him) by cyanide laced drinks in 1978. This was known as the Jonestown Massacre, controversy surrounds it as it is debated whether or not it was a mass suicide or murder. Another commonly referenced cult is Heaven’s Gate, a UFO doomsday religion that ended in a 39 member suicide in 1997 when the group was attempting to leave earth because they believed it was about to be “recycled”. To learn and understand what a cult is, I will be define a cult, what features make a cult and who the people are that join them, as well as discuss the founders of these religions. What is the definition of a cult? Depending on the intent of the author defining the word cult proves a difficult task. The scholars on the subject of cults seem to have two different approaches when studying this topic. There are those who are a part of the anticult movement and often use the word “cult” in a negative fashion towards any religion that has formed in recent history. Those apart of the anticult seem to skirt around the subject of defining a cult or explaining what a cult exactly consists of. We are given the feeling as though they do not want to define it as they may cast an umbrella over other mainstream religions that have a similar form. It is even often used to describe popular trends that will supposedly not last, veganism is a term that has been described as a cult fad. You can see how it is almost always used negatively, or as something that has no real substance and will not stand the test of time like other religions have. In contrast, there are those who do not use the word cult but prefer the term “New Religious Movements”. These scholars have a more objective opinion, and use New Religious Movements to “…represent fascinating glimpses into the way human beings construct religious meaning and organize their lives to give shape to religious experience.” (Cowan, Bromley, 3). It is important to be subjective when using the word cult and for purposes of this paper I will define cult in my own words and state that there is a difference between cults and New Religious Movements. A cult is a form of religion that is deceitful towards its own members with the leader abusing their powers. Although there have been many mainstream religions that have had a leader abuse their powers, it is necessary to point out the difference, which is that in a cult the head of the religion is the source of all their religious knowledge and do not have other ways of getting to know the religion without them. In comparison, mass religions have many leaders, many forms of knowledge and you can attain religious beliefs through many forms, not only the one source. Keeping in mind that using the word cult subjectively is imperative to this process, it is still easy to find movements that can be categorized under my own definition of the word cult. These would include the previously mentioned religions of The People’s Temple and Heaven’s...

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3. economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
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There are three kinds of cults. They are secular, religious and universal. The secular definition of a cult is all that is involved in worship, ritual, emotion, liturgy and attitude. This definition actually denotes what we call denominations and sects and would make all religious movements a cult. The Christian definition is any group which deviates from Biblical, orthodox, historical Christianity. e i. They deny the Deity of Christ; His physical resurrection; His personal and physical return to earth and salvation by FAITH alone. The universal definition is any group which has a pyramid type, authoritarian leadership structure with all teaching and guidance coming from the person/persons at the top. The group will claim to be the only way to God; Nirvana; Paradise; Ultimate Reality; Full Potential, Way to Happiness...

...What is the primary question addressed in this article? What can we learn from this article?
Primarily this article delves into detail about certain court cases involving high tolerance sects, referred to as “cults” and ex-members attempting to sue said cult for various different reasons. The most detailed cases described by the author are of cases in which the plaintiff is accusing the so-called cult of brainwashing the person into joining; seen in cases such as George v. ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Conciousness) as well as Molko and Leal v. The Unification Church [Richardson (1990): 3, 8]. The foremost problem that this presents is whether or not brainwashing is a successful practice that members of sects or “cults” use to bring in new members.
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...Explain the difference between Christianity and a cult | Stage Two Religion Studies 2012
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988 words. | |
Christianity, a at least 2000 year old religion and possibly the most popular in the world, with over 2 billion adherents, is what 90% of a group of fifteen to eighteen year old students answered when they were asked which religion first comes to mind when they hear the word “religion”.Cults on the other hand, are a controversial topic due to their bizarre practises and mind control techniques. Cults are often derived from principles of popular religions, including Christianity, however practised in an extreme manner. The difference between Christianity and a cult can be explained and discovered through an in-depth comparison between devout Christians and brainwashed cult members and the public’s perspective of both. These points and the definitions of major terms will be expanded into the paragraphs below. Through this research the following question sets to be answered: is Christianity essentially the world’s largest cult?
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...best contribute to the organization financially, but to not do it for free, because while it was fun it did not pay the bills (Berg, 1974). The group was accused of prostitution by the public and was later tried in court in several places around the world. A court in Rome in 1991 found that even though Berg counseled in 1977 that practitioners of Flirty Fishing should receive something in exchange for their evangelism, members involved were not knowingly engaging in prostitution, but were victims of this radical proselytism and who saw the act as “a personal contribution to the humanitarian aims that the sect always claimed to pursue” (Chancellor, 2000). Could this be interpreted as brainwashing?
The idea of brainwashing within religious cults is extremely debated among scholars, because both what it entails and its’ existence are made difficult to prove through lack of scientific quantification. Many critics of the existence of brainwashing claim that it is merely a scapegoat for a perfectly autonomous person’s actions, and that yielding to coercion is a conscious decision- not lack of free will (Robbins &amp; Anthony, 1980). This debate stems from a lack of an agreed upon definition of brainwashing, although the phenomenon it seeks to explain has a fairly agreed upon sequential list (Zablocki, 1997). It begins with affiliation, which usually leads to a major lifestyle change due to severance with one’s outside roles and relationships, eventually leading to...

...It can be argued that cults and sects are only fringe organisations that are inevitably short lived and of little influence in contemporary society, however some may have views to contrast this idea. A sect is an organization, which usually breaks off from an established religion, which finds itself in disagreement with beliefs and values of wider society and refuses to tolerate the beliefs of others. Although the desire to be a member is voluntary, as oppose to being born into, like religion, sects are rejected by society and claim strong obligation and commitment by its members.
A sect is an extremely narrow-minded organisation, which is often led by a charismatic leader. Whereas, in contrast, a cult does not progress from a mainstream religion and does not reject or challenge societal norms. However, as tolerant of other beliefs as they are, they still attract a great deal of negative press, for example brainwashing. Members in a cult are usually more like customers than followers. An example of a cult is Heavens gate, which is a destructive doomsday cult, centered in California.
There is a mass of supporting evidence that cults and sects are short lived and insignificant to wider society. Nevertheless, it must be maintained that the matter is complex as there are many sects and cults, which identify themselves differently.
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